Sixteen-year-old Sebastian Manson triumphed in a race-long battle with the Porsche 992 pairing of Steve Brooks and Bill Riding for victory in the North Island Endurance Series 1-Hour at Taupo, only to disqualified post race when his car was found to be under the minimum Class 2 weight of 1250 kilograms, by 15 kilograms.
Manson, in an older Porsche 991 after his 992 was damaged in an incident at Hampton Downs, and Riding were separated by just two-tenths of a second at the chequered flag.
Joel Giddy overcame a pit lane start to complete the overall podium in his Mercedes AMG GT2, 35.5 seconds behind the lead pair.
Brent Forman was the first Class 3 competitor home, backing up his Hampton Downs class victory in a McLaren 570S GT4. The pairing of James Annabell and Richard Wagstaff was second in a Dodge Viper, with Rudy van Het Wout completing the podium in a McLaren, holding off a late challenge from David Cranna.
Pel Arnott also overcame a pit lane start to triumph in Class 4 in a Hyundai i30N TCR, ahead of Brent Celliers (Subaru Impreza) and Grant Baguley (BMW M3).
Chris Wall (Honda Civic) cemented his place atop the Class 5 standings with the win over Tania Jones (BMW E36 Compact).
Manson had earlier qualified on the pole for the event ahead of Giddy, with John Goodacre (IRC GT), Brooks, Paul Southam (Porsche 992), Hunter Robb (Porsche 991) and Rhys Gould (IRC GT Mustang) completing the top seven.
With Giddy late to the grid and forced to start in pit lane with Arnott, Manson took a clear run into Turn 1, with Brooks falling in behind ahead of Goodacre, Southam, Robb and Gould.
The advantage at the front grew beyond two seconds early.
Southam moved into third over Goodacre with a late dive on the brakes at Turn 1 on Lap 6, while Gould worked into fifth over Robb, who was running without ABS in preparation for a future Porsche Sprint Challenge tilt in Australia.
Hayden and Preston Johnston’s Porsche 997 GT3 returned to their garage 10 minutes in, losing laps while they dealt with an issue.
Up the front, Brooks had closed in on Manson as the duo pulled over six seconds clear of Southam by Lap 9. Brooks would hit the front on Lap 10.
Elsewhere, Giddy was charging through the field and sat seventh 20 minutes in before pitting as soon as the pit window opened. Once the window had cycled through, he emerged ahead of Robb in sixth.
When Brooks came in for his stop from the lead on Lap 19, his advantage over Manson had extended to nearly five seconds.
The 16-year-old remained out until Lap 21 and emerged from his stop side-by-side with Riding, who had taken over from Brooks.
Manson held the outside through Turn 1, exiting the pits, but hit the lead on the inside at the following corner.
By then, Southam was over 16 seconds behind the pair, making for a two-car battle at the front, bar a safety car intervention.
That almost came to fruition on Lap 24 when James Parker (IRC GT) went off at Turn 4, stalling and losing several positions from eighth. He would eventually restart and return to proceedings, with only localised yellows required.
During this, Manson began to stretch out his lead over Riding, while Giddy moved into the podium places with successive passes on Gould, Goodacre and then Southam.
With 20 minutes remaining, he sat 26 seconds off Manson.
He almost made that time back again when Robb stopped at the exit of Turn 9 with 15 minutes remaining, but the Toyota 86 race winner pulled off the circuit far enough to allow racing to continue.
With 10 minutes to run, Riding slowly closed in on the lead, as Brooks had done in his stint. The advantage sat at under one second for the final eight laps.
The teenager would keep his nerve in traffic to hold on for a narrow win, with Giddy 35 seconds behind the pair.
Southam was fourth overall, ahead of Goodacre, Gould, John Midgley (Ford Falcon), Glenn Cotterill (Porsche 992), Arnott and Celliers, who completed the overall top ten.
Header Image: Neville Bailey
